{"id":76991,"date":"2019-11-07T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=76991"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T16:14:01","slug":"first-generation-knight-works-promote-financial-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/first-generation-knight-works-promote-financial-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Generation Grad Helped Promote Financial Literacy at UCF"},"content":{"rendered":"
Andrew Allen \u201918 <\/strong>came to UCF with a mission; Study hard and be among the first in his family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n At the end of the Fall 2018 semester he accomplished just that by earning a bachelor’s of arts in graphic design<\/a> with a minor in\u00a0marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI know my family is proud of me,\u201d Allen says. \u201cI wanted to inspire them, too, to pursue college and finish and reach their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n In between all his hard work, Allen accumulated accomplishments that are enviable. He arrived at UCF with a Bright Futures Scholarship and several other academic scholarships. And while at the university he\u2019s been on the President\u2019s Honor Roll and Dean\u2019s List, and has been the recipient of the Excellence in Action Award, Project Best Most Active\u00a0Member and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars Award.<\/p>\n But Allen says he is most proud of having worked in the Office of Student Financial Assistance<\/a>, helping brand and promote the\u00a0\u00a2ent$ible Knight$<\/a>\u00a0campaign, UCF\u2019s campuswide program which encourages financial wellness among students.<\/p>\n Launched in 2015, the \u00a2ent$ible Knight$ program guides students to resources and webinars to stay on sound financial footing. It has a website, social media pages and marketing materials. The program offers webinars and seminars on everything from how to negotiate a salary to establishing strong personal budgets. By 2017, nearly 400 online financial aid tutorials have been completed by students at UCF and the average student score on the financial literacy assessments is 84 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started working with the program, I didn\u2019t even know it existed,\u201d Allen says . \u201cSo that was our goal, to create a campaign to drive more students to the website, give them great content there and through social media and just help them understand that there are tools to help them budget and pay for college.\u201d<\/p>\n He took to the work easily, says Karemah Manselle, associate director of the Office of Student Financial Assistance, who credits Allen with helping the program grow so quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cAndrew immediately began to come up with creative ways to reach the student body and developed phenomenal marketing pieces,\u201d she says. \u201cHe has truly has been an integral part of the branding of the Cent$ible Knight$ program.\u201d<\/p>\n The program has been recognized by lend.edu as one of the top 50 financial-literacy programs on a college campus, she says.<\/p>\n